The Difference Between Biases and Fallacies
Biases
Biases affect how you interpret and collect information and can lead to flawed reasoning. Yet it is a typical part of human psychology as people tend to process information through the filter of their own perception. Biases result from personal experience and ideology, such as political or religious influence, and these biases lead people to believe information that supports what they already perceive to be true, rather than test their own point of view against contradicting evidence.
Fallacies
Whereas biases affect how you take in information, fallacies affect how you communicate your thoughts and ideas to others. A fallacy indicates a reasoning mistake and flawed logic used to support a particular point of view. In these arguments, you may make conclusions based on information that has nothing to do with the original topic, or defend your position by attacking your opponent rather than presenting facts that support your own position.
"Fun with Fallacies"
1. First read the above
2. Next, do the following:
3. Post a rhetorical situation of your own creation in which one of following fallacies is used: equivocation, false authority, ad hominem, appeal to ignorance, or bandwagon. Feel free to use dialog, examples, personal experience, etc., but your depiction of the fallacy's use and dynamic should be spot on. Naturally, you must reveal which fallacy you are describing (see sample below).
Sample/Example
As winter faded and swimsuit season approached, I decided it was time to get in shape. Though not severely overweight, I knew I needed to lose 15 pounds before venturing onto the beach. My friend Rene (who was seriously overweight) stated she had been taking Jillian Michaels' fat burner pills for the past two months and could see a difference. I was skeptical, especially since I didn't see any obvious changes in her figure. Rene claimed that the pills were "real miracle workers" and that everyone she knew was taking them. She insisted that the pills had to work because Jillian Michaels, a famous trainer, had created them. She even tried to convince me that by taking the pills, you would still lose weight without dieting or working out. I told her that anything too good to be true probably wasn't.
Fallacies at work: bandwagon and false authority
4. Watch this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qb-h0sXkH4and critique it briefly. For example
5. Which aspects of the production were well done, in your opinion?
6. Which kinda sucked?
- Do you feel like you learned anything about fallacies? What?
- Would you watch another video in the series?